1. He was diagnosed with brain cancer in August 2013. According to The Associated Press, he had surgery at Houston's University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to remove a lesion and received radiation and chemotherapy treatment. He had a relapse earlier this month and was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington.

3. He was a major in the Delaware National Guard. In 2008, he was deployed to Iraq for a year and received a Bronze Star, according to the AP. A spokesman said Biden is entitled to military funeral honors.

4. He was a lawyer. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and went to Syracuse University for his law degree. He spent five years as a federal prosecutor in Philadelphia and later focused on securities litigation at the Grant & Eisenhofer law firm in Wilmington, Delaware, the AP reported.

5. He was focused on his family. He is survived by his wife, Hallie, and two children, Natalie and Hunter."More than his professional accomplishments, Beau measured himself as a husband, father, son and brother," Joe Biden said. "His absolute honor made him a role model for our family. Beau embodied my father's saying that a parent knows success when his child turns out better than he did."

Beau Biden was preceded in death by his mother, Neilia, and sister Naomi, who were killed in a car accident in 1972, according to CNN. He and his brother, Hunter, were injured in the wreck.